Organized Religion Is a Scam - Ep 43

Welcome to a Mites who allowed the podcast. Yeah, I feel like this is better. I don't know. I've been liking my... I'm supposed to get my period, so my titties are a bit like full, which is exciting. Oh my god. Hey guys, welcome back to Mites who allowed the podcast. We are back. I'm so sorry we missed you last week's episode and we did not communicate that. Guys, I was settling down in LA and I just needed a time to reset, especially after the Nigerian content. And it just went like a night from... Oh, guys. 10,000 subscribers. 10,000 freaking subscribers. I am so grateful, honored. I love you very, very much. Thank you for supporting, for showing me love, for being there for me. Like, I don't even know. I have no words to describe how I'm feeling right now, but I want to say thank you. I just want to say if you're watching the video portion of the podcast, I am definitely in like the common area of this place I'm staying at in LA and you might see people passing by behind. Social anxiety is scared of Sophie and also I just couldn't get a studio to do the podcast this week and I did not want to miss another week on the pod. So this is what happens and Mites allowed us on the road, but you know what I'm not going to do? Mites share with my 10,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 2,000 listeners on Spotify and even more on Apple Music and IHR radio. And everywhere else that people listen to their podcast, like I can't believe we're growing so fast. Like we're just an episode I think 42, 43. 10,000 subscribers. And each episode has been doing so well and it's getting like its own traction. Like I am just so freaking grateful. Okay. I'm going to start. I got to connect to the Wi-Fi first so I can like open our notes for this episode. I feel like one of my biggest things or feedback that I've got in there. I hope you guys have seen is the fact that last episode I think the one where I had my friends Acha and Chica come on there. The ones who were like moving back to Nigeria, who was back to Nigeria at that podcast. The comments were like, Sophie, we're so proud of you, you're interviewing while I get it. Talk to me, fucking nice. I swear guys. The whole point of me learning on the go because I don't want shit to be perfect. I'm not perfect. I'm fucking imperfect. But like for me, it just hits different when you guys see the growth. Like you get it. Like when I first started, I was interrupting people left and right. I did not know what to say. I was yapping away. Like I was just always, I was just not like where I needed to be. And now even watching the episode and seeing the growth, even the fact that like we have merch. You know what I mean? Like I have a iPad case cover. I have like a mic. Yikes. Yikes crazy. We're so fee. This was know house was intro this episode. I swear to you. But I just you guys know I app it's my first little episode in the wild. So I know you guys are excited because there's a lot to talk about. I feel like now when things happen online and social media as well, I get into the habit of like just wanting to talk about it on the podcast because I like the vibe of sitting and gistening with you guys. So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to just because hey, have you guys seen what's been happening? By the way, if you guys have ever been curious about what I use for my podcast episodes like just for my work in general, I use notion. It's not sponsored by the way. I wouldn't sponsor me so bad, but they're not ready yet. Okay. I did not even start episode with my unpopular opinion. Okay. Organized religion is a fricking scam. Organized religion is a scam. And you guys especially because I feel like my audience is very much like Nigerian American. That might be a hard pill to swallow, but if you are patient with me at the end of this episode, I feel like we will be on the same level with regards to why I think organized religion is a scam. And I have a lot of factors that will consider that. We're going to kickstart this episode by talking about organized religion because I really feel very strongly that a lot of the things that are happening in the world today are as a result of organized religion or maybe not as really as a result of organized religion, but as a result of people weaponizing organized religion to do their bidding because the one thing about human nature is the fact that because we don't know, right? Like the human life is something that's unknown. Like we have a vague idea, we might have scientific explanations for stuff, but there's nothing concrete about the human life. Like no one can fully tell me right now how the universe started without people throwing punches or fighting because from a science perspective, the big bang, right? From a religious perspective, there was lights and there was darkness and then lights happened. From a atheist perspective, we're floating balls of something in the sunlight of the universe started. No one accurately knows what the fuck we're doing on the planet now. This used to be fun fact when I was like 11 to 14, I used to have nightmares about life like universe. I would literally be sleeping and wake up in a panic like, what am I doing on earth? What is the reason for all this when I die? Where do I go? And that was around the time when my mom was sending me to the moms because she was trying to get me to pray more. And I would just get into this existential crisis of what is the meaning of the world in life. So I feel like because human beings are a lot more terrified of the unknown, right? We sort of have this removed idea of what we want to know and human beings are very terrified of not knowing stuff. I don't know why is this an earth thing. I think organized religion gives people a safe space to sort of at least have an idea, right? Whenever you're a kid and you want to touch fire, and your parents tell you, oh, if you touch that fire, you will get burned, right? It's the same way with like religion, oh, if you follow these steps, this would happen to you. This would not happen to you. That's kind of the idea behind organized religion for the most part, right? And I'm speaking about this, not from an atheist perspective, but from a very like spiritual, I just want to be open and open to learn because it is absurd to me that as human beings, our belief system blocks our perspectives in such a ridiculous way. Like, even if I was super religious, I still don't think at my core, I would be the kind of person who is so closed off to the idea of another, whether that's in another religion or another person or something that's outside of my belief system, because everything we do is around belief, okay, I'm going down the tangent. I tweeted, organized religion will truly always be the reason for the worst atrocities in the world. Now let's also talk about the fact that like I'm tweeting, I'm on X now. So if you guys don't know, X was actually the first app that I went viral on. And I don't even know if it's, it's safe to say what I'm about to say because I don't want it's to come back up, but I feel like I will, especially in light of a lot of things have gone on. In my life, I've told the story and in that story, I've shared how I was, you know, sexually harassed or slashed assaulted during my time in school and over the over a few years even. And I've shared that and there's a lot of, there's a lot of things about myself I am learning. Okay. And one of those is the impact that that has had on me and who I am as a person. My heart is beating so fast. I'm talking about this. Anyways, I'm bringing that up in a way to talk about my love, hate relationship with X a K a Twitter, I hate that app. And I think it's because with social media with tech talk and Instagram, the video heavy component of those platforms allows people to think before they speak. They still don't think enough because you, when you hear those eight, eight trains happening, they still don't think enough. But there's a level of, oh, I can come on here and say my heart take. So people might agree with it. No, I agree. Some people can deactivate their account. You never hear from them again because of this idea of you're being seen. Like it's literally you having to put up your phone and record. That is pretty scary, right? Compared to a tortas slash X where people can hide behind their keyboard. That's where some of the worst places on the internet, places where you don't need to profile picture or you don't need anything. You just need your hands and a keyboard that you can type in text. That's why I don't like Twitter X. So in this particular situation, I left Twitter, I think for about two years or a year and a half when it just got a bit too much, one of the reasons why, and I feel like I've never addressed this before, but I will is I was accused of being a RAPE apologist, which is absurd to me as somebody who is an RAPE survivor. And or I don't want to use the word victim, but we are victims essentially too. The point is I remember reading my name in associated with that word in with regards to a mutual of mine who was accused of doing RAPE and I remember reading those comments and he wasn't getting dragged. I'm going to talk about this, but I was like people were like, oh, I knew Audity was fake. I felt like there was finally a reason for people to hate all me online. And so that's why I left Twitter, but I came back because I realized that women oftentimes get the brunt of situations like this. Women are oftentimes the soul survivors. The soul panel, because I even know that's the way to phrase it, but women are the ones who oftentimes get that sort of energy unlike the men in that situation like imagine the man being accused of something. And instead of you spending all your energy into saying, F that man, F what he did, your energy is to type out a list of women who you think might be associated with him and then start dragging them through the mud because how their day be associated with it, man, if they did not snow, this was what this asshole was doing because I promise you there are a lot of people who I know as mutuals who are probably horrible people, but I would never know because they're just so good at hiding it. This was going to say, I didn't even know what the fucking man was just a mutual like somebody of a friend of a friend of a friend's friend who has seen randomly a few times and we followed each other on Instagram. Anyways, that's the long winded story of me and my love hate relationship with social media, especially once that arm video heavy. I say all that to say I tweeted something about organized religion around the Trump wanting to come into Nigeria, Christian nationalism issue, which again, we'll talk about in this episode. Guys, there's so much to talk about. I feel like I just want to, there's so much just to, like, I don't even feel like it's just, we need to have like a word for it. Like let's, let's figure it out in the comments like what is the word for what we have going on between us right now? Like what is that word? What can we call it because it needs to be called something because there's so many things I see I'm like, I can't wait to talk the part from about this because we put a mat. Okay, so I said organized religion would truly always be the reason for the worst atrocities in the world. And someone said, practice your organized religion in peace and leave us in an organized one in peace, my dear. And I said, let me feel all you guys in peace, okay. And I wanted to understand that this episode isn't entirely anti faith. It is not anti faith. It's a conversation essentially about like institutions, about power, about belief systems, about manipulation, about control and about lived experiences. I don't think if the one thing I want you to get out of my podcast episodes, if anything is that control control control is the one thing you should never let go of. The one thing as a human, you have one life, you better be in fucking control of it. You get one life to live. You better be in control of it. And I don't think we understand or maybe we just underestimate how many factors are trying to pull at our control because if you're not in control of yourself, somebody else is and that person has the power to do anything they want. And I see that when I think of colonization and how much of a weapon it was in the minds of black people, like control is a fucking drug. Being in control of literal human beings, human beings, being in control of you, like you can say five of you are dead, two of you are alive. One of you go marry this person and have said, you can do that to people who have thought, who are brain, who have blood, who have, do you guys know how much of a fucking mind? I don't even want to get started because that's a whole different conversation. Well, I say all that to say, we're going to be talking about control here. Before we get into all of that, what have I been up to? I just love that. I don't think you guys are going to have any idea where the podcast goes every time we start. But hey guys, okay, so before we get into all the things I want to talk about, I've been going online. What have I been up to? So currently in Los Angeles, I'm going to be here for a bit a few weeks. I'm interviewing some of your favorite people. I can't wait for you guys to see this episode coming out. And I just want to talk about the fact that the guests that I have on the show are people that I feel like you guys should want to hear about, also people who are like friends of mine. I'm still not really sure what the guest energy on the podcast is, but the idea of wanting guests in the podcast is especially for people who are like the outliers in their field. And everybody can be considered an outlier, which gives me an opening there. But essentially, I want to invite people who like who are pioneers, who are different, who are loud, who started something that maybe no one had thought about before. And so I want to amplify those people. And my friend, H.A. endurance, like, oh, sausage, these are people who are doing some really cool shit. So I say let's say, I'm in Los Angeles. I'm interviewing a bunch of people for the podcast and meeting out with my team out here as well. I'm a manager and agent are all based in LA. Nigeria was really fun. I don't want to talk about Nigeria anymore. I think I've done enough with that in my two episodes where I talked about Nigeria and being a real place. I think you guys already know my thoughts on home. It's crazy because of someone who's living out of her suitcase right now. Nigeria is considered home to me, but it's home in a love frustrated relationship, not love hate, but love frustrated relationship because I know how intelligent and smart and beautiful and incredible Nigerians can be, but also know how frustrating and stupid and foolish and annoying they can also be. And I mean that from the government, all the way to the people, all the way to even me. And I think you can say that about any country, right? And so I just specifically talk about Nigeria because I am Nigerian. But I say let's say I've left Nigeria. That was fun. I will be going back for Dessert December if you don't know what Dessert December is. It's around this period from I like to say is December 13. People will talk about first batch. Second batch. Let me tell you guys how Dessert December works. Okay. 13th is the earliest you should be getting to Lagos to enjoy Dessert December. I don't care what you say. You don't need to be in Nigeria for a whole month. The December 13th to January 1st is what I consider the death of December period. Okay. December 13th to December 2526, you are in Lagos, Nigeria. You're having a good time. You're going to Zaza. You're going to beach clubs. You're going to Lache Beach. You're doing all these things. You're going to brunches and restaurants at Marco and all of those things from the 25th. If you're of the Eastern tribe, South Eastern tribes maybe you decide to go home to the village. That's typical, right? That's what I've been doing all the time. Lagos is a bit drier and so people will decide to go to Ghana. You're in Ghana from the 2526 to the 30th, 31st. That's the solid good time. If you're someone like me and you notice there's a growing trend of people going to Cape town, then you go to South Africa for New Year, South Africa is crazy. You go to South Africa for New Year's and that's essentially the Dessert December period. Go across Africa. If you're watching this right now, you're not African, you're just African American, you're interested in it. Do that. If you're not, you just want to say in Lagos the entire time, you can do that. If you want to say Ghana at the entire time, you can do that. If you want to say in South Africa the entire time, you can do that too. If you want to go to Syria, Leon, if you want to go to Cameroon, you can do that too. The summer period is really, really festive, so it's like a really, really fun and great. That's Dessert December. I'll be going. I feel like this October period was me going back to work, so connect with people, work with people. Lagos Fashion Week was a thing, African Film Festival, all of that. Then Dessert December period is me just having fun, so family, relaxing, trying restaurants, brunching, actually having a social frickin life. I think when I was there this past time, I didn't really have a social life. I just want to go with my friends, and thankfully my friends were with me, which is great. That was an Nigerian trip. I also ended up walking at Lagos Fashion Week, which was insane. I talked about that in my vlog, so you guys go check it out if you've not already. That was a surreal experience. In my vlog, I shit everything about how that came about, but I'm just really grateful that that happened, so your girl is a fashion model. I can't wait to do more stuff like that. I feel like I just didn't manifest any of the things I want for myself, and they've just been paying off, and I can't wait to actually continue to manifest and do the things I want for myself, so we'll keep that in mind for other things. That was my trip to Nigeria. It was so fun hanging on an interview with the people that I did. I really was so torn by interviewing guests in Nigeria. Okay, let's talk about this. I might get in trouble for it, but I don't care, because if they can say what they say, I can say what I say, too. The amount of people who reached out to me, I wanted me to come on, the, I said what I said, podcasts is incredible. I also met with July. July is one of the co-hosts of I said what I said, and I said what I said is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, podcasts in Nigeria, in Africa, in the world at this point. They're so massive, they have a cult following. Love them down, but here's the thing, and I'm going to say it's all the podcasts, because I know when I finally go on the podcast, it's something we're going to have to address. I love those two girls down, those two ladies, those two women, I love them down. So, when I was blowing up in 2020, I was, I think I was posting videos of myself and whatever on Twitter, Twitter, fucking, I'm telling you, I'm telling you Twitter on X one, that's what will get you. And I posted a video, I think, and one of the co-hosts, I'm actually not going to tell you which one, but you guys can guess, I want to go to the co-hosts, so I said what I said, said, tweeted, something, something, something, a knockoff Ricky Thompson, instantly just basically saying that they can't, maybe they can't stand me because I'm a knockoff Ricky Thompson, or they hate my accent, because I'm a knockoff Ricky Thompson, or something like that, but I would never forget that feeling of being like, holy shit, like somebody who I looked up to, I loved, I was really, I just, I loved her down. And so to read her, say that about me, immediately just like, oh, I'm telling you guys, and those are on the same time when like the folks that I used to look up to then, it's crazy because they're not that old, they don't that much older than me, but it happened like back to back. I had like three instances of OG creators, that's what I call them, who maybe I'd had conversations with, or they tweeted something about me in my come-up era, that just wasn't nice. And I remember just reading them as Stangui, that was it, because first of all, I was like, that's such a mean thing to say, but also, okay, now I'm going to show you and prove to you that I am not a knockoff Ricky Thompson, I'm going to do my thing. So you can also say she was an inspiration. So I have not interacted or engaged with them or the podcast sins. I've seen the growth I admire it. I'm a huge, huge fan, but I just, I just carried myself back because I don't, I just, I just, I don't think I'm ever going to get an apology, but I also don't know if it's necessary, because it's Twitter like, you get, you get shaded, you get insulted, you move on from it, but I'm building my shit over here and they're killing it over there. If we ever do end up linking and collaborating, I think that would be epic, but that is why I've not been on, I said what I said, I said what I said. All right, guys, we're going to be calling the segments. This came up on my FYP, where I react to random shit, that just comes up on my FYP, especially from my algorithm, because guys, I swear to you, my algorithm is crazy. You can DM or tag me in the wireless thing on your FIP with the hashtag, this came up on my FIP and I my react to it on the next episode. If my algorithm is wrong, what I curious, I want to see what your algorithm is to. Okay, so first thing that came up when I was scrolling for this is this. It is a video of a love Island contestant, Olandria on Harper's Bazaar. I think why I wanted to talk about this a little bit was because right after this video was another video about somebody saying how she bought first of all, if you did not watch love Island, same. I did not watch love Island, but I watched love Island on TikTok. I was following along on TikTok, so I knew exactly the love, like, Olandria, Niko Loaf story, everything. I'm Niko Landria Stan, don't play all of it. Okay, I have seen such grace, such care, such love. You can tell she's so intentional. She would definitely remind me of like, you know those like, if you're not American, then this might not hit the same, but American colleges, especially HBCUs, bring out a certain type of black woman and those women are so excellent. They're like the Kamala Harris' of the world. They're just always on par. They've had to shoulder bullying and they've had to struggle through poverty and stuff like that to get to where they need to be. I'm not saying that's what she had to go through, but it's usually from that like, rastic, gray story where I didn't have anything to feed, but I'm going to always have my shoulder high, my posture gray, face card, nails done, hair done, body, just everything ready to take off. And I think she just needed a platform to be exactly who she is. And I've seen a lot of discourse around the other contestants versus her. And I will say that nothing is luck when you're ready for your dream to happen. Like, you can tell she was very prepared for her dream to happen. And this came up because that video is from a cover she did with Harper's Bazaar Vietnam. And a lot of the discourse is like, oh, like, Harper's Bazaar Vietnam is actually just like a knock of Harper's Bazaar. You are a hit time in Jellos Bastard. You're a hitter. First of all, because no, that is not true. People like Beyonce Janet Jackson have all been in Harper's Bazaar Vietnam. Like, it's a no brainer. In fact, those covers are even bigger and more incredible and amazing. And also she's doing a PR run right now. She's constantly going to do PR runs. It makes sense to do stuff like this with PR. Like, she's one of the biggest stars right now on the fricking planet. Like, don't fricking play with a landria. And I love how they're making sure her and Nick have two different careers. Like, she's not attached to him as like, if Nick is in there, then she's not going to be like, I love that very much like separate. She's giving, it's given like, Haley Bieber and Justin Bieber. You know, I mean, like Justin Bieber just be doing his own thing. He's talented, of course. And then Haley Bieber is just like this boss lady doing her thing. I know people have their own opinions about Haley Bieber. That's not what we're talking about here. I'm just letting you guys know the facts. So that came up with my FIP. And I want to just say if the haters of landria keep going. Another thing that I saw, I think, is crazy is this video of someone unboxing the Apple $300 iPhone pocket, which is a strap for your iPhone. A strap for your eye. Like, when I tell you Apple will do anything to make money, I think is actually absurd. When I saw that, I thought it was actually like April fools, but they're not. They're serious. They knew what's crazy. People are going to buy it. I knew I was in for a treat when I was thinking about buying the iPhone 17 and I have three phones. What do I need a new one for? What did I need? Why would I get another one? And just thinking about the fact that earphones are now earpieces and then you can unplug them when you get your phone, like your charger is differently, your charger head is different from the actual wire that goes into the charger. There's so many things that happen to your damn. Honestly, no, we're not even going to have that conversation. If you get the Apple iPhone at pockets, you have money and you deserve to space. You deserve to waste it. Like, I'm not even going to stress out. You deserve to waste it. Last thing on my FIP is dancing with the stars Alex Earl. So if you're not American, dancing with the stars is a television show where celebrities old and new go on there and they dance for about nine weeks, six weeks. And they do like different like dance styles. So they do a tango, fox straw, contemporary hip-hop, all of that stuff. And they have judges who judge them. It's usually for like people who either want to resurface their career or who wants to get on a different stage. It's very big CV especially in America. This is particularly important because Alex Earl is on dancing with the stars this year. And I'm a huge fan of Alex Earl. Now, it's is very, very hard for me to and I don't know how this is going to sound. It is very hard for me to be a fan of a white woman. I'll tell you why, especially one who is from a rich background. I'm not even going to lie. Like, is she's a rich background rich girl? I don't know her politics, but you know, it's like how many things are we ever going to, I'm going to tell we're going to be in spaces together. We're like, we might feel like things where we can relate to stuff. But I will say that girl's work ethic is 10 out of 10. Like, there is not one time I go on her page and I see the fact that like, I have a podcast, a YouTube channel, all this blah, blah, blah. And it feels like I'm sinking and drowning and I can't wake up every day doing more. She is, she's been on the go for four years. If you know Alex Earl is, she's a white girl influencer, one of the top white influencers right now of, for lack of a better word, substance. Like she, and I say substance loosely too, because I'm like, it's not like she's like, you know, fighting wars or like doing thing pieces about like the shit going on in the world. It's not that. It's messy, it's chaotic, but it's, it's lighthearted, fun shit. And I think she does get ready with me. She parties. She adopts foster dogs. Like, it's very the American dream-esque type vibe. This version of her on Dancing with the Stars is something that I love to see. She's been so incredible, so hardworking. You can't take that away. Like, no matter what, I can't take, I can't even hate the fact that she's hardworking. Like, nah, I have to stand you even more because if you're a dancing, learning new moves and you're still on and present online, like you're doing something right. So shout out to Alex Earl for being on Dancing with the Stars and for killing me. I hope she wins. If not her, then I think Robert Irwin is going to win. He is the Australian guy, the one whose dad passed away from crocodile. What is his name? Am I wrong for that? You guys know in the comments. Okay, but you guys get it. Yeah, so that is what's on my FYP. If you guys want to let me know what's on your FYP, so I can react to it too. I would love that. So don't forget to hashtag what this was on my FYP. And the pod fam with two D's, not one, two D's, so that way I can see what you guys are up to as well. Okay, okay, we're getting into today's episode because I really wanted to talk about Christian nationalism. And honestly, Islamic nationalism, honestly, religion nationalism. And I'm going to shout out simply Shayo, all Shayo says the podcast. And this all started when Trump decided to send President Trump tonight is threatening to take action against Nigeria for what he says is the persecution and killing of Christians. In a post on Truth Social, the president said he has ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for a possible military action. Trump warned he will also quote immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria. Nigeria's president says his country is not okay. I was in Nigeria when Trump posted that. And who I remember I was in public, I think. And I was trying to gauge the reactions of people. So I went on Twitter or X and the amount of dumb, dumb mastery, the amount of stupidity, the amount of foolishness that I saw. Oh, guys, I was livid. A sitting president threatens to invade a sovereign nation. And my brothers and sisters and everyone in between looked and decided to open their hands and type, yes, this needs to happen. Are you dumb? Okay, so let's talk about it. And I feel like this tweet from Larry Madoel is the perfect response to that. He says President Trump claims there's a mass load of Christians in Nigeria and it's going to send us troops. But unlike white South Africans, it didn't create a refugee path for Nigerian Christians to move to America. And that to me was exactly what came into my mind when I saw his tweet because I remember thinking, oh, if this was really a thing, I'm trying to pick my works carefully because I exist in both worlds, if you know, you know. And I might too loud if I say that propaganda is a real thing. I might too loud if I say that religion is the best way to control Africans, especially on the continent. They came to you. You had your religion. You had your tribes. You had your people. And then white people came and then you said, okay, fuck our thing. We should follow your God. We should follow your rules. We should follow everything you do because you have to have more sense than us. Right? Right? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong, guys. That's know how life should work. You people might have to like the unconscious way Nigerian decided to put themselves lower than America and the West by saying, oh, yes, you're right. You guys have it all figured out. Please come and help us figure it out. Why are they the ones having to help us figure it out? Who is President Trump in this situation to come and tell you that your country deserves to be saved by who? For what? Untweeted and said, Nigerians are a conundrum. Highly intelligence on one hand, yet so stupid, it leaves you speechless. And then my friend Shia, Shia says the podcast says they're indoctrinated. Intelligence is no match for indoctrination. Inductionation overrides intelligence, rejecting critical thinking for dogmata, replacing nationality, replacing rationality with intellectual dishonesty. Inductionation makes a joke of intelligence. It suspends and undermines it. She just always says it perfectly. I don't know how she does it, but I'm always going to be a fan. That's exactly why I think it's important to clarify that there's a clear distinction between faith versus religion versus institutions. And I think America is currently facing that battle right now with the rise of Christian nationalism and across the world in general, because we've all been there, right? When the crusades happen, the jihad movement, the alleged operas in so many places around the world around religion being used as the weapon, as a story to tell people, this is your birthright. This is what you need to be going. This is what you need to do. And I will say this is something that I think makes me feel like I'm a bit too loud to say this, but in a country of over 200 million people, I am not saying there is no unrest. I am not saying that at all. Please understand, I am not saying that at all. But if you are telling me there are 50,000, maybe 30,000, 20,000 dead bodies of Christians. Where? Where? And I think as Nigerians, and I fall, I fall in the same category of the dogmata of the fear mongering of the north, as this uninhabited archaic, not intelligent, not folks who don't have knowledge, like that group of people, they're there. And I tell you this because every propaganda tool is very easy. It's the fear of the unknown. That's it. If you were looking at me right now, I'm thinking, oh, I'm so scared of this. It's probably because you don't understand it. You don't know it. Because if you did, then I don't think these kind of conversions would need to be had, especially in Nigeria, because most of who don't travel to the north, it seems like this far away place. They don't understand what the northern is saying or speaking. They see the with the way colonization worked in Nigeria, it really much splits us up, right? You see, evil folks as like the business owners, and you hear people say, you're about people are the ones who took over Lagos, and then you have people who are the northern people and once we just stuck to Sharia law and jihadism. And yes, to that breakdown, but also yes, to the fact that because now you're so close off to what the north looks like, to who the north and the north are. Any sort of any. You'll just take in anything. You will just take in anything. And I am not saying there is not a crucifixion of Christians happening in the north. I'm not saying there's no Christian Muslims happening in the north. In fact, there's some stupid things that come out of the north that I go, what the fuck this needs to stop happening. But I don't think the response to that is a foreign government coming into your country and telling you what to do. Now, if your government is not responsive, and it's not responding as fast as you would want it, change your fucking government. I feel like we underestimate the power of a people just having had enough. We've not had enough in Nigeria. I don't think we've had enough because if we've truly had enough, and I feel like the conversations would be different because the amount of tweets and comments I saw saying, oh, thank you, President Trump, come save us. Come save you. You're living your lucky phase one apartment in Ireland. You never go on past Legos. Come save you. Some of you people who have actually never even left your own home. You've never been seen struggle or suffering. You're talking come save us and Twitter fingers and TikTok fingers. Guys, anyways, I just I feel frustration because we've never seen foreign intervention work. And if you have please, please, because I would love to, I would love to learn more and see in what capacity that happened because I just don't think foreign intervention works because foreign intervention means that whoever is intervening understands the local politics, local experience, and is able to properly guarantee that that is still going to remain intact. And most of the times it can't. Like we see that happen in the case of Israel and Palestine right now. We see that happen in case of Ukraine and Russia. Like we see that happen everywhere, even the U.N. aid is a billion dollar industry. I'm going to say that. Anyway, let's talk about it a little bit because faith, religion and institutions all play a huge role because in that tweet, I could see how immediately Nigerian Christians, current Nigerian Christians are like, yes, yes, your religion is under attack or really, really, our institution is going to help. Let's do it. Huh? Don't piss me off. So let me talk to you guys a little bit about religion here. So religion, faith, faith, especially looks like your personal relationship, your belief system. What do you believe? Right? What do you believe in? Do you believe this God? Do you believe this Jesus, do you believe the Prophet Muhammad? Like who do you believe in the Torah? What do you believe in? In Christianity, you read the Bible in the Judaism, you read the Torah and that kind of thing. Organized religion is the institutions around that institution, meaning if I'm in Muslim, I have these tenants, right? And then I want to also find people who are Muslims who have the same things and who want to follow the things I'm doing. So I'm going to find a mosque. I'm going to find a Muslim group. I'm going to find a charity. I'm going to find places that I can feel like I have some level of affinity to, and we all want the same thing. That's where these institutions come in. And what does the harm usually happen? It's at that level of institution because religion and faith with power equals institution. You decide to give that pastor all the power. You decide to give that a mom all the power. You decide to give that priest all the power. Sometimes we forget that your religion is supposed to be something so sacred and you see how that becomes an issue because now you see that most places your donations are super expensive. Ties are used for manipulation. You see churches, you see more like your mom's. Well, actually, I don't think your mom loves your mom's or rich. And I don't want to bring this to like versus versus but interesting. I just realized that I don't really see rich in moms except actually not even in the UAE, I don't think. I don't anyways. You see that with, you know, pastors having this ridiculous amounts of money and large churches and the people who in the congregation of broke and struggling. You see that with prosperity, idea like even with the prayers, like I saw this on TikTok the other day where someone said when Africans are praying, they're praying against the weapon fashioned against them. Like you're never praying directly as in like I pray for peace for love. I pray for what you're praying like may God punish all my enemies. Nothing against like even black people tend to do that too. Like our prayers are less about what we want and how we make we've got to pray for nothing to come against us because it's rooted in colonization. When you all you've heard passed down is hide away. God will save you. God will save you. This struggle yet. This struggle. This strife is going to be worth it at the end of the day. You can't know peace and you ask yourself what is the reason for that? And I'm telling you, I'm telling you it's crazy. I'm telling you right now that this episode is not to tell you that religion is a farce. I'm not saying that because I'm never want to judge you in your religion and your practices. Am I to all to simply wanting you to answer this question? Who is in control? Who is in control? Because that answer should always be you. And it should be you with the understanding that if you choose to follow a religion and following its practices, no pastor should be in control, no Imam should be in control, no priest should be in control. You should be in control. You should have that relationship with your God. That belief system should only live and exist within you. You can go to church to go pray. Go to the mosque to go pray. Go to the anywhere to go pray. Also reminding yourself, no one should be granted any higher power than you. Because honestly, you hear this a lot on their control and fear, where if you don't go ex, you'll go to hell. If people policing your behavior, your clothes, your lifestyle, using that as a reason to cause harm will see that in a lot of Muslim countries. And for me, it's so crazy. It's so it's absurd to me to sit here and think about people looking mean the eye and telling me, Oh, you somebody. I saw this recently. I think it was somewhere in the Middle East where two men were flogged. And I think stone to death because, you know, of their gay and homosexual activities are illegal. You are telling me that your God, your God is going to be so fine with the fact that you killed another human because they are gay. Don't piss me off. Sorry, guys. I'm actually not sorry. It's not loud. You're telling me your God is going to be happy with you because you shot missiles to protect yourself. You're telling me your God is going to take you to heaven. You're going to stay in heaven because you're killing unbelievers. I don't want that God because the God I would like to know is a God whose judgment is reserved with him. Oh, I don't respect what you're doing, how you dress, how you look, how you behave. That's none of my business. When you go to the judgment zone, if there is any, that's will be your your cross to bear. I just I've never understood how people use religion as a tool to judge others to to beat down others to break people. When that's not even what religion is supposed to be about, that's not what faith is supposed to be about. Islam is a religion of peace. Where is the peace? Christianity is a religion of peace. Where is the fucking peace? And if you're telling me, oh, as a Christian, I'm prosecuted, so I need to prosecute someone else. Oh, that's why your religion says, oh, please. I think for me as a young child growing up, that's why I always had questions about religion, about life, about people because I just wanted to understand. And I was never a kid who just simply was told, this is exactly what you need to follow, follow it because you're human, just like I'm human. So you're going to make mistakes. I want to have questions, just like you want to have questions. And the whole point of life is to always ask the right questions. It's always nerve wracking. It's always very fearful in a way to want to ask or question people's religious beliefs because religion is something that we hold dear to ourselves. But I think it's important to also remember that to be curious is not a bad thing. Honestly, now my problem with organized religion is just usually money and power, hypocrisy, using that to cause harm in a way and then just control and fear. And we see this time and time and time again. And I'm not saying if you weren't an organized religion, then this wouldn't be a problem. I think a lot of this is also human led. And I think that's the question I like to post people is people are human. And if you know anything about humans, if you know yourself, you know how hard in many ways it is to be human and to respect humanity in that sense, humans are very fickle. Humans are human. Like I can't believe we all just sit here and just think, Oh, for sure, for sure, somebody somewhere wrote something as a human and remembered every single detail and then told me to me and I have to believe you 100%. I know someone who told me something I embellished or forgot something. Like humans are just so fickle. We can't be trusted. And so I think religion works better when it's a one-on-one thing. Okay, right? It's like you and God. Okay. And am I too loud if I tell you that? Maybe. Because maybe sometimes you're going to listen to this and you're going to have thing pieces in the comments and I'm going to read it and my mind isn't going to change because even that thing piece you're about to write. I hope it's a thing piece that you wrote based off of your understanding. Write it and watch you have been fed. Because the amount of people who have been fed propaganda, who have been fed things that they just think to be true even though they're not. Can't be a bit scary. I also just want to talk about like my personal experience is growing up a religion wearing scary. I mean like my family is pretty religious, very Muslim. But besides an uncle who just took it too far and well took it too far as in like ended up ostracizing me out of the family and abandon me, abandoning me in America. Like we don't speak anymore. Besides that, I just I've never had a bad experience with religion in a way to make me question the things I'm questioning this way. I think I just chose to ask questions all the time. And in my pursuit of asking those questions, some things just didn't make sense to me. And that's why I ended up becoming who I am right now. And I think life is best lived when you're curious and not scared. Because fear would always hold you back from living the true life that you want to live. But curiosity is so beautiful because so much can come from that. It's especially harder as an African Muslim queer woman to sit here and talk to you about religion because you're probably already like, okay, first of all, you're not the same religion as I am or maybe like I'm not from the same place. But the beauty of religion from what you and everybody else says is, oh, it's everyone, right? Is this we're all on this earth and we have just one God or you have just one ruler, you have just one spiritual leader. If that is the case, then in many ways, how do you sit with yourself in thinking of the way religion has been used so press a lot of people and the way we use it right now to pass judgment? Because when I say I'm a Muslim black queer woman, something in there doesn't mix, especially with the rules that we're given. But I exist and people like me exist too. So do you treat me with fear? Do you treat me with curiosity? Do you treat me with judgment? I think that's the question we should be asking ourselves. And I think religion also has an identity. I think religion has also been used in many ways to quell culture and to take us away from community. And I see that a lot in African stories where we all had vibrant stories of our ancestors, Oddua and you know, we'd have the tortoise stories and fairy tales. And now it's all being overshadowed by stories of Jesus and stories of religion. And I wonder when you hear, like, form of civilizations, how they're dead now. I always wonder, how can that be? How did no one try to stop it? But I see it now so vividly. How things are just taken away from you and religion is used as that tool to take it away from you. Because who tells you that your culture is something to be ashamed of? I just, I want to leave you guys with that. There's also a lot of religious trauma. A lot of people have, I think it's a lot more. And I don't want this to end up coming off as like me bashing religion because that's not the case. But I want this to be more of like, let's have people open their eyes and arms to questions and see where that goes. And there's a lot of good parts. There's lots of good parts to religion. There's community, there's support systems, there's shared values, there's moral grounding, there's ritual and meaning, and feeling like there's something bigger than you. I know and understand that. But I like to ask people, when you think about all the good things and you see all the really, really bad things that happen, do we not understand now how once we decide to abdicate our self-power and give it to somebody else, that's where we end up losing. Because a lot of people, when the Trump thing came up and they said, you know, and your Christians are coming here to save you. And you guys could not say, don't worry or don't worry, we're fine. Just also save us. Isn't that a problem? Because now you're giving the power to a man to come onto your sovereign land with boots on the ground and arrow supports to come and destroy. And I'm here in talks of a basin of portacles. Where is the queffula? And he has many portacles. Guys, I'm telling you control is such a fucking drug. And power is such a drug. And if we are in careful, we might lose ourselves in these conversations. And I think that's why I don't want to happen. So just letting those things sit with you for a bit for a bit. So now I want you to ask yourself, can we keep the good without the institution? Is there a possibility of a world where religion is an institution and what does that look like? Because I wonder where the idea of institutions began. And if that I'm curious, I'm not sure, I should just read more about this. I'm so curious. I wonder where? Because if there's a belief system that says, this is exactly what you need to do. I wonder when we start like saying, okay, now we almost go to church on Sundays. Why Sunday? Oh, we must all pray in jimam Fridays. Why Fridays? Why not Thursday or Tuesday or Monday? Like it's so human beings are so curious to me. Like we're so cool. And we just find stuff like that. And we just decide like, okay, what's going to do that? I know what questions it. I hope if you listen to this, you're one of those people like me who wants to just question shit. I just like questioning shit. Just to cause a ruckus. Also just to learn because I'm going to read on that and see what I come up with. I might let you guys know if you ask me on Snapchat. That's pretty much it about my take on organized religion. Let me know what you guys think. I feel like there's a lot of people who might be curious to say, okay, if you're not saying anything is about religion and what what are the alternatives? And I like to say like spirituality outside of church therapy therapy. A lot of people need therapy plus faith community groups solo belief systems deconstructing and reconstructing your beliefs and just making sure like you're keeping your faith without surrendering your autonomy. A lot of us don't know how to keep faith without surrending autonomy. And honestly, if I'm going to ask you that, I feel like a lot of that is it's really scary having ownership. It's really scary. Just not knowing what's next. And religion lets us lean a bit. Let's just have a hold on life. And sometimes the harder work comes when you're about to let go and just going to be like, oh, whatever happens happens. I think it's really cool for you to start asking yourself these questions because you never know where faith, especially solo faith could lead you. Just saying, okay guys, we're moving on to our next segment called the loud report where I share everything around the news in the world. The world is burning and somehow I'm still expected to do get ready with me. Do funny videos. Do all this shit and have a smile on my fucking face. Like do you guys know how insane that is? And it's something for me that I think about all the time. I think that's why I also wanted the podcast in a way like I want to have fucking fun conversation like maybe next week's episode will be about STDs. I don't fucking know. I don't know why I think STDs are fun to talk about. Interesting. I should unpack that later. The point is like I think for me the podcast is going to be my way of saying as a creator, as an influencer, as someone who you guys listen to, they're times where I see the news. I just don't want to see it. Like I just I can't right now. And that might come from a big place of privilege because of course I don't want to see the news and I can turn it off. There are people who can't even have TVs. There are people who don't, whose houses have been reduced to rubble in the world. I think this is going to be my space. If you guys don't know, I have a master's in peace and conflict. So I'm educated. Okay. When I talk, I'm actually I'm using my brain sometimes. So I want to actually have a space where I can just share some of my opinions towards the end of the podcast around news things going on. But it's like a fun like daily show SNL late night, late night news sort of vibe. Okay. Okay. So let's get into it. The first thing on a very light note I want to talk about is is having a boyfriend embarrassing now. And that was in British vogue by Shantay Joseph and she wrote this article is having a boyfriend embarrassing now. And when I saw that, I actually didn't go read the article. I just remembered like looking through a bunch of clips on TikTok about it before I read the article. And it's so interesting because I think social media sometimes has us forgetting that not everybody documents their life. And when things are really good and things are really bad, people tend to recommend the lows and the highs. For the most part, we all forget that we folks on social media still kind of live in a bubble. So what I say to that is the discourse right now about boyfriends is interesting because I think women now are getting into a space where we're realizing that we got the short end of the stick. Like being a woman is not you've not won in any way in the societies we all live in. Like we're all existing in patriarchal society. Meaning from even when we're growing up, we've been told we're second class citizens. So I think with the age of social media, your achievements you're oftentimes celebrated as a woman. It's no brainer that the biggest day of a woman's life is considered to be her wedding day, right? When I sit back and think about maybe when I was 21, I did like a whole binge drinking blah, blah, but for the most part, if I graduate from my master's, oh yeah, okay, but for the most part, the biggest day of your life as a woman is usually your wedding day. No, even the husband, your wedding day. And men don't even celebrate anything. So I can't bring that up. But the point is for a woman, that's usually it. So imagine if that big day with the TR and the white dress and everything is what is supposed to be the best day of your life. You're going to spend most of your young years waiting and looking forward to that day because everyone has told you, propaganda has told you that that's the best day of your life. So now you're going to sit down, you're going to wait. So you're going to find any man. And if a man treats you for idiots, you take it because you won't stop a wedding day. And you have your mom and your family and your dads and everybody's telling you you have to be more than so. And man, it's not going to want you. You have to be calm. Everything from one year young is telling you to wait to be, to do this in order to get the man to get to the wedding, to start the children, to start the family. But then social media happens. And then people are starting to document the process before you get to that big day. And it's like, oh, my boyfriend is actually not a good person. Or my boyfriend is, oh, these relationships are actually not as glossy as people think they are. And now because a lot of people are open, because you know, I always never knew about happening people's relationships, growing up, not like I know everybody's relationship business. Life isn't as private anymore. So we also have that into it. So this particular British regardical is pretty much saying what I've seen on the internet recently, which is a larger group of women are realizing that men aren't shit. I'm actually having an upcoming episode you guys are going to like about this men aren't shit. And men aren't shit because of their own faults for sure, but also because of the society that they created because I then the day a man has not have the emotional intelligence. A man is not to raise to provide for you emotionally and in a way that would get them to be great husbands to you like, great husband, just great boyfriends alike unicorns because of the way society set up. So one of the excerpts from this is what I wanted to point out. Obviously, there's no shame in falling in love, but there's also no shame in trying and failing to find it or not trying at all. As long as we're openly rethinking and criticizing heteronormativity, having a boyfriend will remain is somewhat fragile or even contentious concept within public life. This is also happening alongside a wave of women reclaiming and replying to sizing their single life, where being single was a once cautionary tale. You end up a spinster with lots of cuts. It's not becoming a desirable and coveted status. Another nail in the coffin of his centuries old heterosexual fairytale that never really benefited women to begin with. Essentially what I was trying to say, right? It's pretty cool to see women are saying they want to go and say, I can imagine the time when going on a solo date was crazy. Why are you sitting at a table alone? Self-care crazy, vacations, stay-cations, solo occasions. I have friends even till now who would say they would not travel somewhere unless it's a vacation with a man. Excuse you, go on that fucking trip. I think it's pretty cool. I will say having a man now comes off as embarrassed because people are like, unless you're holding this man on a higher standard than you're wasting your time, I think it was a fun, very click-bady title and I think the synopsis of that conversation is women. If at all anything, when you're in relationships, your relationship is not the be-all to the end all. Even if this boy is embarrassing, even if this boy is the best thing that's ever happened to you, always choose yourself because of them the day that's all that matters. So that was pretty much my take on that. Okay, moving on. I don't know if you guys have heard this song, I run Haven by Haven on TikTok, but I love that song and then I found out that the person who sang it might actually be AI, but there was one time I went to Vid Summit and a creator said, oh this huge guy talked about AI and like how creators could respond to AI and he said something that stuck with me, he said, the currency now wouldn't be attention, it wouldn't be how viral you can get, it would be how authentic you are. People would want to look for the mess. So even with all the chaos and the craziness of everything going on, longevity now in the world of AI looks like chasing authenticity and truth. And for someone who's human, okay, this is my same like a duh moment before a lot of people who are in this world trying to aspire to be perfect, it starts having people start into question, oh, do I actually want to look perfect? Because think about it on TikTok now, if you have people with like really crisp and clear backgrounds, people are not engaging with that content anymore because they're like, this is to AI. And some girls are like, no, no, no, so I just would make up on it. I just made sure my camera quality is great. People like, no, we just want you on your phone, just record something. That is where the world is going to be headed to. Like how real can you be? How much like how messy can you get? How much of a mistake technology would make mistakes? Yeah, we make mistakes, but how human can you be? And I think that is the actual like that's the beauty of AI now. All right, coming up on more report news, Asha Keh actually did a symphonic. He had his red bull symphonic performance. And guys, let me read this excerpt for you because I have to read it. He shared the stage with a world class orchestra conducted by the acclaimed Glenn Alexander. This concert took place at the King's Theater where the audience was a diverse mix of Africans, Caribbean, African-Americans, and fans from all over the world. As the orchestra began weaving their violin, saxophones, and trumpets into that smooth Eurobar rhythm, the entire crowd locked in. When I tell you, when I saw Asha Keh with the red bull symphonic, I got an invite, I couldn't go. I was just in awe of how much Afrobees has just been traveling in the world. And Asha guess specifically because he's a Eurobar artist who sings in Eurobar. So sings in his native language and he's doing so well. And he's the example of what it means to stay in authentic and true to yourself and what that looks like. He's experimenting with his art without it's getting diluted. And for a lot of creators, I think that's a pretty important message to remember is sometimes, it might feel like the harder route. It might feel like the harder thing to go through. But when you just stay true to your fucking self, it will always pay off. So that was such a fun concert. All the videos I've seen have been amazing. Okay, so now onto some not so fun news around stuff that I've been seen online. I saw purple display photos on Twitter. And then I went on TikTok and everywhere else in the necesseing conversations happening about Femiside going on in South Africa. And I found out that every 2.5 hours a woman is murdered in South Africa and people want to argue that women are always complaining. And there was a bunch of articles talking about the Femiside happening in South Africa. And it's in this podcast alone we've talked about, you know, having a boyfriend is embarrassing, but I've talked about my sexual assault history. And conversations like this just sometimes make me feel hopeless when I think about what happens to women around the world. I also talk about the women. I also want to bring up the women in Sudan and the women in Congo and the women in Palestine and women and girls around the world who are suffering and struggling. I'm beginning killed and murdered by horrible, horrible, horrible men. And sometimes I feel like I don't have the words because it just feels like being a woman already, like just you being a woman is enough. And then you add, I can't imagine, and I don't ever want to imagine that, but there are people, there are women who exist in this world who go through periods and hormones and all those things go through pregnancy in war zones. Women who have been raped and have to give birth to their IRAs' child because they have no choice, who kill themselves because they would rather die and go through that. When you think of a world like that, sometimes for someone like me, it feels like such a faraway entity. It doesn't feel like it happens to me, but then I remember that it's happened to me. And I remember it's happening to women right down the street. I remember it's happening to women in countries like South Africa and countries like Nigeria. And it breaks my heart every time. And I just want to say I'm signing with the women in South Africa. I'm standing with the women in Palestine. I'm standing with the women in Nigeria. I'm standing with the women all over the world who in the Congo and Sudan, who are who are who are bearing the brunt of a horrible, horrible world. Okay, guys, okay. Final thoughts. I did not say God is a scam. I didn't say faith is a scam. I said, organize religion is a scam. Let's get that one. Let's get that clear. Guys, girls and gays, that is the end of today's episode of I might too loud the podcast. If you've made this as far, you're officially a part of the pod fam. You're stuck with me. But before you go, please do the Holy Trinity for me. Get it. Okay, follow the podcast wherever you're listening, rate and review. So leave me a cute little paragraph. Don't be shy and share this episode with one friend who is definitely too loud for their own good. Also, make sure you're following me on socials on Instagram, YouTube everywhere. And don't forget, guys, we're launching something called the pod fam hotline. We already have it. But you guys are not submitting your voicemails. And I want to hear your voice. So please, please, please go on the website at myzulow.com or myzulowpod.com. And you can live a voice note about anything and everything. And I will react to that on each episode. It's going to be called the pod fam hotline. And this is where you can send in your unpopular opinions, dilemmas, rants, voice notes, reactions to the episodes, all of it. The link and details are going to be in the show notes and go there after this press it and come and expose yourself to me. Tell me everything. Okay, guys, I have I said something today that drags you, inspires you, made you side die, made you be like, I don't want to listen to her anymore. That's fine. Like, comment, subscribe to the podcast and I'll see you guys. I'll talk to you guys later. I'll talk to you guys later. I love you guys. Bye.